Thursday

You won't get much out of me today; had virtually no sleep overnight, and although the flood has now stopped, I'm well bunged up. I'll live though. Weather here in the isles is changeable, sunshine and drizzly showers. The lunchtime ferry was half an hour late into Stornoway, as it's quite windy today. How do I know? I am on the harbour front and every boat that comes and goes passes within my view. And by virtue of the Internet, I am able to find out all about the ships. The cruise season finished a fortnight ago, just as well for the poor cruise passengers. I'll leave you with a story that did the rounds last year.

A cruiseliner was rounding Cape Wrath, 60 miles to the northeast of here, in galeforce winds. The sea was rough, and the passengers less than comfortable. One of them, a lady from Rome, was convinced the ship was about to go down, so she rang her sister in Italy. The sister became so concerned that she contacted the Italian coastguard, who in turn got in touch with their counterparts in Aberdeen. When they radio'd the cruiseship, the captain said: "It's rough out here, it's not very nice, but we're safe and not about to sink".